Artist in Residence Program
We host an artist residency on site and other community-based residencies throughout the year. They highlight the arts, social justice and civic engagement celebrating local creative talent in inclusive ways. Each residency is unique and may include an exhibit, programs or performances. We are unable to accept unsolicited applicants for the Artist in Residence program.
2025 Artists in Residence
Vaquero Azul
Vaquero Azul is a Otomí, Maya and Taíno, Two-Spirit illustrator and sewist. Their work focuses on Trans Euforia and Mexican & Mesoamerican Indigenous joy. Vaquero Azul’s residency at The Seattle Public Library will include programs at Central Library, and include presentations on Mesoamerican Trans Icons, a workshop to make your own Moño ties and a presentation on the garments created during their residency. They will be designing and creating five Mesoamerican Folklórico garments woven with LGBT2IA+& Trans euforia during their residency.
Vaquero Azul has installed a Trans Pride Ofrenda in The Central Library's Level 3 as part of the Aiden Thomas event to bring awareness to the MesoAmerican Trans Lives taken from violence in Mexico & the United States.
Nina Vichayapai
Nina Vichayapai
Nina Vichayapai's art explores what it means to be at the intersections of margins and peripheries. Her interdisciplinary practice spans everything from soft sculpture and public art to pie making, dog petting and eavesdropping. Her work has been shown internationally and locally, including at Tacoma Arts Museum, the Wing Luke Museum, and the Henry Art Gallery. Nina is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Art and Social Practice at Portland State University and lives in Portland, Oregon. She was born in Bangkok, Thailand.
During Nina’s residency she will investigate the limits of borrowing and lending within the library. Can you borrow time? A listening ear? Can you check out a helping hand? Nina will share her findings through public programs.
Nina is also part of an artist collective called Taking Our Time. They will hold an event at the Central Library that will invite visitors to engage with the space in new and unexpected ways.
Gretchen Yanover
Seattle cellist Gretchen Yanover creates string atmospheres woven with warm melodies. She performs as a soloist with her electric cello and looping pedal, along with her classical music life on acoustic cello. Gretchen is a member of NW Sinfonietta orchestra and also serves on their DEI task force. Yanover has performed for Earshot Jazz Festival and TEDx Seattle, and has had compositions commissioned by Seattle Symphony, Seattle Pacific University and University of Oregon. Gretchen has had Artist Residencies with Shunpike, Town Hall Seattle, and Icicle Creek Center for the Arts. Yanover’s 5th album will be released March 2024.
Gretchen Yanover's residency at The Seattle Public Library will include programs at Central Library including concerts in the children’s center, concerts coinciding with Coffee & Conversations and a program in the auditorium.
She will also be working with library staff and patrons at the Douglass-Truth Branch.
Past Artists in Residence
Chi Moscou-Jackson
Seattle Artist Chi Moscou-Jackson was our Artist in Residence in 2023-2024. Moscou-Jackson’s project featured multiple components including research and experimentation on-site at the Central Library in the Seattle Room and the Maritz map collection. He invited the public to capture and share their experience of the city and then he shared these images in new photographic collage compositions and digital formats. Chi's residency project was also supported in part by a community partnership with Photocenter Northwest.
Monyee Chau
Seattle artist Monyee Chau was our 2023 Artist in Residence. Monyee’s project was centered on research, zine making and community engagement/social practice and story collecting. They created a zine about Southern Guangdong Chinese laborers and immigrants during the 1800’s and also drew quick portraits and collected stories of Library patrons to create a celebratory zine of the Library and the communities that convene there.
Reflections
Reflections was a unique dance festival featuring contemporary dancers and cultural practitioners, all artists of color, co-presented in 2020 and 2021 by The Seattle Public Library and Friends of Waterfront Seattle.
Romson Bustillo
Seattle artist Romson Bustillo was our 2019 Artist in Residence. His project “Proximity Modifier Project IV” used images and printmaking to explore how individuals, communities and organizations like libraries share space together. Using imagery, printmaking, and spontaneous collaborations, Bustillo explored social justice and social change in unique, free community art workshops.
yəhaw̓
In the fall of 2018, we partnered with yəhaw̓ (pronunciation: yahowt), an Indigenous-led arts project, to celebrate Indigenous creativity and environmental equity. Our artists in residence included Native Kut, Fox Spears, and Roldy Aguero Ablao.
Creative Justice
In connection with our year-long series about criminal justice in 2017, we collaborated with Creative Justice, an arts-based alternative to incarceration for young people in King County. We co-presented artwork by their Youth Leadership Board in an exhibit called “Someday We’ll All be Free.”